The annual International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC) conference has positively affected thousands of communities all over the world by creating more efficient and open governments. This year, clerks will be convening in Portand, OR for the annual IIMC Conference where they will team up with Granicus to become greener governments, and help plant a billion trees!

Granicus is launching a Go Green initiative at the IIMC conference because municipal clerks are the ultimate managers of legislative information. Clerks oversee recordkeeping, agendas, minutes, policy, and information flow across multiple departments and elected officials. They are critical to the government process and can be catalysts in helping their organizations go green. Green government isn't just about helping the environment; it's about leveraging paperless strategies to become more efficient and open.

Over the next couple weeks—before, during, and after IIMC, we will be raising awareness of our Go Green initiative at the conference and on our IIMC Portal (for all those clerks who couldn’t make it to the conference this year). Visit this website to join the Go Green initiative and to get exclusive tips on the best ways for municipalities to go green through technology! Be sure submit your email address on the page to receive real-time updates.

Let’s look at some of the facts…

Our surveys found that approximately 50-100 hours and roughly 6,000 pieces of paper were being spent on agenda workflows and the legislative process per month. This is costing them roughly $40,000-$100,000 per year! This is why Granicus is so passionate about delivering paperless, automated workflows for government. So we can reduce inefficiencies and costs.

Paper. Tons of paper.

The reality is that government data is still heavily dependent on paper. We need to change that. For the mere fact that paper is intrinsically disorganized and lacks any sense of agility, I dread the mailman, and yet, that’s still the primary medium for data transfer in most local governments today. Next week, I’ll get into just how many trees local government costs (see our IIMC Portal).

Clerks are the frontline warriors for a paperless government. They control the workflow as it is; why not shift from being paper-based to completely digital? While we’re having that discussion this year at IIMC, and in honor of creating greener government, we’re going to get together and plant some trees!

Don’t worry; supporting this important environmental initiative is easy. It can all be done through Facebook:

How to Join the Go Green Initiative

Step 1: Make a pledge to go green with Granicus

Like Granicus on Facebook. This officially pledges your agency’s support of the Go Green initiative. For every Facebook “like” we receive, Granicus will donate a tree to the“Plant a Billion Trees” initiative.

Go to our facebook Go Green picture and comment on it by adding your municipality's name and a green message to our growing list of governments who have joined the Green initiative. It will be even better if you give an example of how you're going green (e.g. "The City of Long Beach is going green by reducing paper!").

Once we receive your comment, your organization is officially part of our national Go Green movement.